I am doing free form vines in big stitch on a quilt right now and have done two others some years back with interlocking circles. Love it and find it very relaxing. I use a long needle that is fairly fine but Sashiko needles work well. I use, also, a hoop, thimble and on my thumb i put a piece of Dollar store rubber glove finger tip to help pull up the thread. I think the premise is very similar to fine quilting. If you try to keep your stitches even eventually they will get smaller. Try it. It is fun and soooo much faster.

Big Stitch is great. I'm seeing more and more of it. It serves the same purpose to hold quilt layers together. I always thought of it as suitable for "primitive" style quilts but seeing it more and more on modern quilts and it looks great! i think of it as a kind of design element..at least to me, that's when it looks best. I did a chevron row quilt and used it to echo the peaks and valleys and very much liked the end result. I'd do it again...as stated, it is much quicker just less subtle than hand-quilting.

I did a big stitch quilt last year and it was fun to do. It went really fast. I used variegated thread, I believe it was perle cotton.
The look is different but I like it. The only problem for me is that I'm used to hand quilting and I had to keep remembering not to make the stitches too small.Thimblebug, yours is lovely!

I've done a lot of handquilting, but find big stitching difficult... I'm too used to making mine tiny! Pulling the heavier thread through the layers is hard on the wrist and fingers...so if doing this, be aware of that and pace yourself accordingly. I think it's a nice accent stitch, or to give a primitive look to a project.

A lady in my sewing group does big stitch with perle cotton thread in a color to compliment the quilts. She does many charity donation quilts and they are absolutely beautiful. She does so many that I ask her if she quilts and drives at the same time.(as opposed to texting). She always has one in her hands to work on. However, I will not be trying it with these arthritic hands. I do think it is very pretty.

I haven't done any big stitch quilts yet, but I definitely plan to! I love the look of it! I think I'll probably just go with some placemats first, to see if I enjoy the process. I hope I do, 'cause it surely is pretty!

I did a big stitch quilt last year and it was fun to do. It went really fast. I used variegated thread, I believe it was perle cotton.
The look is different but I like it. The only problem for me is that I'm used to hand quilting and I had to keep remembering not to make the stitches too small.Thimblebug, yours is lovely!

I agree with SusieQOH...being a hand quilter doing 'big stitch' was quick; easy; fun but definitely had a hard time not making my stitches tiny, lol. That said, even with the tiny stitches by using the pearle cotton thread there was still more definition in the quilting. I like how it turned out on the quilt I did this style quilting.

I did a queen size quilt with big stitch. I used Sew Sassy a size 12 thread, it is like two strands of embroidery floss. I used Tiger Tape to keep the stitches the same length and evenly spaced. I used a contrasting color thread from the quilt color. I won 2nd place in handquilting category at a local show to the dismay of many who had tiny handstitches. Some of the handquilters felt like it wasn't real 'handquilting' and got their noses out of joint about it. I still got the ribbon though. LOL

I believe giving what I can will never cause me to be in need.Being cheap is not a badge of honor.My heroes are working people, paying their own way, taking care of their children and being decent human beings.